A picture taken on Wednesday, Dec. 7 shows Gray Cranes flocking over a tractor dispersing food at Agamon Hula Lake in Hula valley in northern Israel. More than half a billion birds of some 400 species pass through the Jordan Valley to Africa and go back to Europe during the year.

A dozen Lebanese women, dressed as brides in white wedding dresses stained with fake blood and bandages, gathered Tuesday outside government buildings in Lebanon's capital to protest a law that allows a rapist to get away with his crime if he marries the survivor.

From a childhood as a refugee, Capt. Safia Ferozi is now flying a transport plane for Afghanistan's air force as the country's second female pilot, a sign of the efforts to bring more women into the armed forces.